Building computer :)

I've looked at it. I'd actually decided that a regular copy of 7 Pro would be a better OS, but I'm still open to being persuaded otherwise.

I don't need backups of remote machines. Everything important gets saved to the file server for a reason.

I don't want to use WHS's JBOD implementation. That's where FlexRAID comes in -- the convenience of one logical drive, the safety of a JBOD with parity, and the flexibility of adding additional drives to the array at any time.

Win7 MCE will do network media shares, and is hackable to allow remotely-scheduled recording.

So... what does WHS bring to the table?
 
WHS's disk management solution isn't just JBOD. It's roughly a software RAID that allows drives to be hot swapped (as long as the remaining drives have enough storage to cover the drive being removed). This is nice because it allows duplication of data across multiple physical drives without the complexity of RAID or the need for all drives to be the same size.

Other than that, Win 7 can probably handle everything the WHS can. I guess the only thing would be that WHS gives you a subdomain name of homeserver.com that gives you access to your home network. This is great if you have a dynamic IP and don't run something like dyndns.com

I've never seen that FlexRAID, so maybe it does what WHS does for the drives. I will have to check it out.
 
WHS is just JBOD with optional folder-by-folder mirroring. If you want 4GB of protected storage, it will take 8GB in physical disks. I've got that already, and it sucks.

FlexRAID is JBOD in the sense that individual files (or even individual directories) are not striped across multiple disks. But data protection is accomplished by a single parity disk. If you lose any one drive, you don't lose data. If you lose two drives, you only lose the data on those physical disks. You can still do folder-by-folder mirroring for critical data.
 
That's very interesting because the new version of WHS, codenamed Vail, is losing it's software raid ability, which for most is one of the main reasons for having WHS.

With FlexRAID, do all the drives have to be the same size? I'm running on almost no sleep over the last three days, so forgive me if it's noted on the FlexRAID website, but is it a ROM you flash to a RAID controller card?
 
No, the drives can be different sizes, but the parity drive has to be the largest (or one of the largest) ones.

FlexRAID is all software-based, and available for a bunch of different OSes... basically everything BUT BSD and OSX. It's essentially a software layer that sits between the OS and your drive array. It handles what files get saved to what disks (according to available space and some rules you can configure), and it handles updating the parity information.

But let's say you have a 400GB, a 600GB, two TB drives, and a 1.5TB. With FlexRAID, you'd have 3GB of physical storage. You could use the entire 400, 600, and both 1TB drives. The 1.5TB would have the parity set on it, and it would have about 500GB that goes unused (because you only need 1TB of parity data). But if you added a 1.5TB drive to the array, you'd add 1.5TB of storage.

Similarly, if you had 5x 1TB drives, you'd have 4TB of actual storage and a 1TB parity set.

You can also increase the number of parity drives all the way up to a 1:1 mirror, if you choose.

There's also unraid... which is similar, but is essentially its own *nix-based OS. It's designed to run off a memory stick, though. So it's handy if you just need smb network shares and maybe a domain controller. I think the flexibility (er... software support, really) that comes from a Windoze-based machine is preferable to a dedicated *nix box. I can always run a CentOS or Ubuntu VM on the Windoze machine.
 
If the parity drive dies, you just stuff a new one in and rebuild the parity set. All your data is still there on the array drives.

If a drive in the array dies, you replace it and rebuild the data from the parity info.
 
Leslie said:
Thanks and uh....you lost me on the "+ KDE" LOL :eek:
Click to expand...

Leslie, KDE is just another GUI (graphical user interface). I recommend that you stick with what you have (Gnome) for now. You will probably pick up on the other options as you go. You may also want to look here: http://ubuntuforums.org/
There is plenty of help and support out there, all you need to do is ask. :)
 
Just a note for the original poster. I recommend Ubuntu 10.04 32 bit. It is a bit more stable than the current release (10.10) and unless you are crunching big number or doing major video editing then 32 bit is fine. 64 bit buys you the ability to run more than 4 gigs of ram but comes with a slew of driver and plug in availability issues. 3 gigs of ram is fine for the 32 bit OS. One of the best things you can do in a modern system is to use an SSD drive for the OS. You can pick up a 40G Intel X25v for around $70-80 and then add a huge spinning sata drive for file storage.

You have to remember that you have to add software to work with restricted formats such as MP3s, DVDs, flash video, java, and such but that is well documented and step by step instructions are all over the net. The lack of those keeps a lot of people out of linux since they are not as easy to add in as they are in a Windows environment.

Using ubuntu on an SSD in a decent low end (sub $400) modern machine will surprise you with its performance.

Good luck.

Bob
 
Figured I'd top this...

I need a new case. Mid-tower, full size ATX motherboard, prefer PSU at the bottom. I'm mostly interested in something that's easy to get in and out of and has lots and lots of HD space. Prefer HD caddies or something like that.

The Rosewill ARMOR is both awesome... and retarded. It's got six fans, one of which looks like it came out of my attic. But the HD mounting is pretty nice.

These Lian Li cases look pretty nice, but it only has four of those little bad ass HD caddies.

I've looked at stuff like these external enclosures, but at the price, it seems like you'd be better off spending that money on a big ass case and some 3.5" backplanes.... or just buying an 8-disc Drobo or something.
 
I don't know why, but this just seemed pertinant to the thread.
ai.imgur.com_L1gEL.jpg
 
Holy shit... that guy is rocking it old school. :lol:
 
... interesting. That's similar to this Lian Li I was looking at, except with a rebate, no stupid window, and an extra 3.5" bay.

Also... an awful lot of video card for a "server"... but I guess I can't talk much. Mine will probably get a Radeon 5770. :lol:
 
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